Dating & Failing
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1421: While Nora and Grace continue to help her prepare for her date, Emily tells her two friends about her worst date and one of the reasons she's afraid for this one. - Sunshine Girls 2 series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 67th cycle. Now cycle 68!_

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**"Dating & Failing"  
Nora (AU!Beth), Grace (OC), Emily (OC; Nellie V.)  
Sunshine Girls 2 series  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_  
**

For what came of Emily's dating history, neither Nora nor Grace knew all that much, which might have been odd to anyone except Nora and Grace. Emily had always been there to see them through whatever preparation they had to do for this event or that one, but when it came to her, it was all a bit confused. More often than not, they wouldn't know she even had a date until it was over and she wouldn't even go into too much detail beyond 'it sucked.' As far as they knew, she'd gone out with four guys, not one of them for more than a single date.

The most recent of those, they knew, had been following the last year's Halloween party at Warren's house. That she chose this one was almost no surprise: it had been her biggest disappointment.

X

_Last Halloween_

Anytime a costume event of some sort happened, Emily would always be the one to suggest that the three of them create some kind of group costume. There were plenty of dynamic trios out there after all, so why not take the opportunity of their numbers. But then it never ended up working, because one would get an idea and wish to stick to it, and another would do the same, and in the end their costumes would not match. The one time they had done it, which was probably the reason why Emily wanted to reproduce it, was from their first Halloween together, when they'd been eleven. They had dressed up as the Powerpuff Girls, an 'inspired' decision because they all had the various hair colors to match.

This year, Nora had come as 'the ghost of Marie Antoinette,' while Grace was dressed and painted up as a grayscale fifties' housewife. Emily had fashioned herself as a split down the middle fusion of Snow White and the Evil Queen. The queen's side was randomly heavier than the Snow White side, which made her tilt if she was distracted. This was in no small part responsible for the start of her odd little night. At one time, she'd tilted so far that there was no salvaging her balance, and she'd almost fallen to the ground… until someone caught her.

"Woah, hey, are you alright?" She scrambled to get back on her feet and turned to find herself face to face with a giant frog boy. He was slim enough to look like an extended frog, his costume covering him up from head to toe, save for his face, which had been painted green. Right then and there she'd had the clarity to think only and not speak her query as to whether he might turn into a prince if she kissed him.

"Yeah, sorry, costume… mishap," she frowned.

"It looks great, actually," he told her, and somewhere under her own makeup she had to be blushing.

"Thanks…" she told him before squinting to try and figure out who he was. She was coming up blank. "Do you go to McKinley?"

"No, I used to go to school with Warren, before he transferred to McKinley, he invited a bunch of us," the boy explained before presenting his frog hand. "I'm Derek."

"Emily," she placed her Snow White hand in his.

For the rest of the time she spent at the party, she had believed maybe she really had found her frog prince. Derek kept talking to her, made her laugh, and they danced a few times. She'd only gone out with three other guys before, none for more than one time, and each one of them had been swings and misses, to the point where she was starting to believe there would be no one out there for her. But now here she was, with this boy, and this was actually not that bad, it was almost good, actually. This wasn't a date, she knew, but it was about to lead to one. Derek wanted them to go out, the next night, and she said yes.

The next night, no longer in costume, she had gone to meet her frog prince, as organized, at a nearby restaurant. She recognized Derek when he came only by the fact that his face had retained at least some of its green tint from the night before. He wasn't extraordinary looking, but Emily didn't care all that much about that. Immediately when they'd sat down, he specified that they would be paying for their own dinners, which didn't bother her in any way except maybe for how it had been the first thing he said after hello. In hindsight, it should have been her first clue this would not end well.

For the next hour or so, she sat there, looking at this boy, trying to listen to him, or more precisely, trying to remember what it was that she'd found so charming the night before. Her frog prince was no prince, just a frog, slimy and cold. He was rude to the waitress, talked with his mouth full, and oh did he ever talk; he wouldn't stop. Even if Emily hadn't been slowly but surely plotting her escape, which kept her from talking, she doubted she could have gotten a word in. Maybe if she could sneak her phone out she could text Nora or Grace to call her back and give her an out.

To add insult to injury, Derek had then accused her of not being interested, not paying attention to him. She said she was, and he got up and went to the bathroom. She didn't know what had possessed her, but she'd convinced herself to just see this night through and be done with it, add one more to her 'one date wonder' tally. Only Derek never returned from the bathroom. She waited five, ten, fifteen minutes before a bad feeling crept up her spine. She went to the men's room door, took up her courage, and pushed the door open, just enough so she could call inside for him. Derek didn't answer. When a man almost bumped into her coming out of there, she asked him if he could check. Derek wasn't there; he'd left. She tried to explain to the waitress, but she wouldn't have it, and Emily had been forced to pay for both dinners.

X

"He didn't go to our school, so I figured at least I wouldn't have to see him again," Emily frowned.

"That's why you wouldn't come with us to the movies the weekend after, wasn't it?" Grace understood.

"I didn't have the money anymore and I didn't want to tell you two why," she admitted. Nora had her arms around her, sitting behind her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked Emily.

"What would be the point? I didn't want to have to think about him again."

"Okay, but you know Kelly won't be that way. You know him."

"No, I know that, but… we've never been alone like that before, not in this way. What if he turns out to be something else, too?"

"He won't," Grace assured her.

"Alright, one more story," Nora decided. "Maybe this one will help. I'll tell you about one of my first dates."

THE END/TO BE CONTINUED (DAY 1442)

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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